Go figure
by esama
Summary: Hikaru is a bit more computer savy and decides that the internet is good place to be perfectly honest. Blog story, AU with lot of swearing.
1. December

Warnings: AU, some oocness, excessive use of the internet, lot of made up site and stuff, and Hikaru swearing so much, that I had to mark this M. Seriously, it's for the swearing alone.

* * *

**Go figure**

Blog of the possessed and the obsessive

* * *

**Yeah, so, this sucks.** 13th of December

Okay, first of all, I am not insane. I am relatively even minded, calm…ish young man at the peak of my youth, doing your usual normal things, going to school, yadda yadda yadda. Perfectly normal, slightly more awesome than average, with excellent hairstyle and fairly good taste in clothing. Okay? Not nuts.

So, when I tell you that I met a ghost couple of days back, and haven't been able to get rid of him since? Not the mad gibberish of an insane person. Fact. Like, seriously – he's right there even, looking over my shoulder as I write and he keeps trying to correct my grammar despite the fact that _his_ grammar is like hundred and forty years out of date.

Okay, okay, let's start from the beginning.

This happened like three days ago. Here was I, minding my own business – okay, fine; I wasn't, shut up Sai. I was in my grandpa's shed thinking of _borrowing_ some useless stuff that no one would miss, and sell it because my parent's in their great wisdom decided to cut my allowance just because the teacher was being a – okay, fine, I won't write that, but she was! She gave us a test without warning damn thirty questions too! How was I supposed to be prepared? Anyway, bad grade, mad parents, cut allowance equals me seeing if gramps has some stuff he doesn't need but which would get me out of the ranks of the piss poor. It's a saying, not a curse, shut up Sai.

So, here I am in this shed and it's dusty all over and – oh, wait, I forgot my friend. I wasn't alone, there was this – okay, never mind, that's beside the point and she ran off anyway – and before you say anything; she's a childhood friend, neighbour, not a girlfriend. And back to the story.

So, here I am in this shed and there's load of crap around, and I mean loads. It's this huge two-story shed, with the bottom floor so full you can't turn and there's everything there. Clothing from the era of samurai and stuff, cups, pans, pots, paintings that are like mouldy, scrolls, all ort of decoration crap, Christmas lights, on and on all this useless crap. So I go to the second floor because that's where all the good stuff is – gramps keeps it there because it's dryer up there, you know? And of course it's more pots and pans and cups, but there's some antique looking stuff too from like the gramps of my gramps and so forth.

And then there is this Goban.

Okay, Sai is telling me not everyone might know what a Goban, I guess that's right – my useless friend who shall remain unnamed who ran off didn't either. Okay, Goban is a board for the game called Go, or Igo – or Weiqi or Baduk, Wikipedia tells me. Anyway, it's a strategy game, two players, black and white stones, you take turns, capture territories, and so forth. Basically, boring. Shut up Sai.

And back to the story. The Goban. Now, my gramps has been a Go maniac since for ever so I know a bit of these things – the tall ones, with legs, all solid wood and stuff? _Seriously expensive_. Like, hundreds of thousands to _millions_ of yen. And this Goban is just like that. Tall, all dark and solid and ancienty looking. Yes, ancienty is a word. But it was buried under a load of crap, like clothes and boxes and stuff in the bottom of a trunk and stuff – and gramps has like three other Gobans around the house or something. So I figure, hey, this is my meal ticket.

And pop goes the weasel. Sai – Fujiwara no Sai, according to _him_ – comes out of the damned thing. I mean, geez. Here I am, doing something only mildly questionable, and BAM, a damn ghost appears. And it was pretty freaky too, because Sai is like this Heian guy with all the robes and hat and stuff, and tell me you wouldn't freak out if a guy who looks a bit like a Shinto Priest suddenly decided to jump you for no good reason?

And check this out; the reason he is a ghost? Because he wants to play _Go_. He's a freaking _Go_ ghost.

Okay, okay, fine. Sai's bothering me, so I guess I got to write this down. Sai was, according to him again, born some thousand years back in Heian Kyo – basically, Kyoto when it was still being lame and historical. Shut up Sai, my blog, I write what I want. Anyway, he was a teacher back then, a Go instructor or whatever, to the court and to the emperor and stuff,

Well, at least until some other teacher decided he didn't like Sai's pretty boy face and got rid of him. Okay, it's more complicated than that, but this is my blog, I ain't writing it all down. Long story short, there was intrigue and dramatics and stuff, and in the end Sai killed himself. Okay, we're all up to speed? Great!

I'm ignoring Sai now. He's sobbing in the corner.

So anyway. Since he popped out at me, he's bound to me know and keeps following me everywhere – and all the time whining about Go, wanting to play Go and see Go and that I should learn Go and yadda yadda. Seriously annoying. Maybe I was an axe murderer in my past life or something, because I can't think what I've done to deserve this.

So here I am, bitching to the void about it because it's not like I can actually tell anyone in person – I'd be meeting the nice men in white coats pretty quickly after wouldn't I? So I'm blogging.

_0 comments._

* * *

**I hate my life**. 14th of December

Sai discovered that him being all sad and stuff makes me sick. Yay for me – guess how many times I barfed today? At _school_?

Seriously need to figure out what to do about this guy. There is no way in hell I am wasting my time going into a lessons or Go salon or anything, I got better things to do with my life than make sure a dead guy gets what he wants – I am not going out my way to make him happy when he's the interloper here!

Any suggestions, anyone? Please? Come on, the hit counter say that at least couple of people read the last entry, you got to help me out here! Think of my shirts, they will never be the same after today, and that was my favourite yellow shirt too! And besides, barfing all the time is not healthy. Or all that entertaining.

_1 comments._

* * *

**Fuck yeah, internet!** 14th of December

Thank you Sin12we43ef2! I checked out the WorldIgoNet website, and it is just what I want. Website where they play go! Perfect. Okay, the site is freaking confusing and it took me almost hour to manage to register to the damn thing but still! I don't have to go anywhere, Sai's finally stopped whining, everything is looking up!

I'm going to let Sai play for a while now. Let's see what comes out of this – I bet he sucks so bad…

_1 comments._

* * *

**Happy ghost makes a happy blogger.** 16th of December

Okay, maybe the WorldIgoNet idea was a bit bad – now Sai won't shut up if I as much as glance at my computer, and is always wanting to play – but hey, I ain't complaining. I am not barfing anymore, he's no longer annoying and noisy when I go out, and when ever he plays I can do other things on the internet since the WorldIgoNet windows can be made pretty small, they don't bother me much. I am considering stealing dad's monitor though, so that I can have two screens – that way, we'll both have a screen to ourselves and I can do whatever I want while he plays. Mind you I have to place down the dots – stones – for him, but that's no biggy.

In other news, it turns out Sai's pretty good with history and now that he gets to play he doesn't mind helping me, much. Also, he apparently was with some other guy around hundred and forty years back – someone called Torajiro, I dunno. Anyway, he knows things about the time which is good for me because my stupid remedial test was about that time – and guess who got eighty four percent! Wohoo!

Also, Sin – can I call you Sin? Sin random numbers and letters is kinda annoying to write. Anyway, Sai's nick on WorldIgoNet is, surprise, surprise, _sai_. Just _sai_. So if you really want to check him out…

_0 comments._

* * *

**Nothing much going on.** 21st of December

Read the title. Now that Sai's playing and content, I haven't had much trouble. I did steal my dad's screen – he wasn't using it anyway, his computer's been busted for months and he uses mine all the time – so Sai has his own screen now, not that he understands the significance. We've been downloading some kifu from the net, though – well I have been and he has been reading them – because apparently Go has changed in the last decades and he's trying to figure out why the games are all uneven, somehow? Hell if I understand a word of it.

Also, yay for winter hols. Not that I am doing anything in particular, just more of the same, but still.

_2 comments._

* * *

**Thanks.** 21st of December

Apparently this Komi thing makes sense to Sai even if doesn't to me, so thanks. He's no longer bitching me about it anyway, so that's good.

Also, what do you mean my blog is hilarious and I have good imagination? I'm not making this stuff up!

_1 comments._

* * *

**Whatever.** 22nd of December

Think what you want, this blogger does not give a crap.

I am going to bed. Way, way too much Go for one day.

_1 comments._

* * *

**Leave me alone.** 26th of December

I've got a cold, go away and stop sending me private messages. I don't care if you think Sai is strong and you want to play him – I have date with my bed and it is going to last for days. Also, whoever linked this blog in WorldIgoNet is going down. I'm looking at you, Sin, your days are numbered. Once I feel like doing the hunting and manslaughter.

'Kay, bye.

_6 comments._

* * *

**Feeling a bit better and shut up.** 28th of December

So, no longer feverish, bit sniffly and stuffy and still miffed off. It turns out that Sai is actually a good Go player now that he knows about the Komi and doesn't accidentally throw games anymore. Who would've thunk it? Though I suppose that explains why gets so many challenges every time we log into WorldIgoNet. Also, thanks whoever it was that mentioned that you can make it so that you can't be challenged there and can do all the challenging yourself – that makes my life a lot easier, let me tell you.

Also, stop sending me PMs about wanting to play Sai. Or worse yet, wanting to play him again. If you got one chance and we're not challenging you again, guess what it means? You suck and aren't worth the effort and Sai wants to play someone who might actually be good. And I am not setting you up on cyber dates with a ghost, you creeps. Get a life, guys.

Also, whoever thinks that I'm _sai_ can go to hell. I don't even know the damn game – okay, fine, I've picked up the basics of it, but I don't know how to play it. I am not Sai and even if I were, I am not going to play you. So there. And kindly piss off.

Sai is telling me to be nice, but hell with that. I am sick, I've got a headache and I can't breathe through my nose and it feels like something is trying to crawl out of my ear. And I wish everyone who PM'd me could share this wonderful feeling.

I'm going back to bed. Call me when you guys feel like making sense again.

_5 comments._

* * *

AN: yeah this is fun and weird. It'll be nothing but blog posts, the entire thing. I'm going to post them by month, which means some chapters will be long, some short, some non-existent, depending on what Hikaru happens to write. And yeah, he ended up being a bit of a potty mouth, sorry about that.

I'll blame all grammar errors on Hikaru being twelve and overly excited, mkay?


	2. January

Warnings: AU, some oocness, excessive use of the internet, lot of made up site and stuff, and Hikaru swearing so much, that I had to mark this M. Seriously, it's for the swearing alone.

* * *

**Go figure**

Blog of the possessed and the obsessive

* * *

**Here's me: hating the weather.** 3rd of January

Okay, Sai is not going to be playing Go in the net for a while – there was strong wind today and it knocked the lines about and guess who's without net? I'm writing this at school computer during recess; don't tell the teacher – not supposed to be using these shitty things for anything but school work, apparently.

Anyone got any suggestions about what I can do to keep the annoying whiner happy until I get net back? It's been a day, and I'm already considering suicide.

_7 comments._

* * *

**Kinda cool, a bit,** 5th of January

Thanks Reika44 for suggesting that we take a look at some Go event. I checked out and the Go Association was holding this Children's Go Tournament thing, and figured that I might as well, didn't have anything to do that day and I had something to buy that part of the city anyway. So, I took Sai to have a look at it.

Best idea ever. He hasn't whined much since.

The tournament was a bit freaky too – I mean, there was something like forty kids there, playing _Go_. I thought it was like old men's game but no, forty kids, and some more watching – though there were old people there too, but they were all obviously just watching. Lots and lots of people. We wandered around with Sai, watching the games and so forth and I saw some other stuff there which I might check out – kifu collections and tutorial books and stuff like that which might keep Sai quiet for a while.

I think I'll have a look at other Go events in the future, it was pretty interesting. Despite everything. Not that I could make any sense of the games.

In other news; it looks like we might have net back next week. Wohoo.

_11 comments._

* * *

**Give me a break.** 5th of January

Yes, I live in Tokyo, and no, I am not going to meet with any of you guys. You are all nuts.

_8 comments._

* * *

**Net is back.** 8th of January

Woot. More Go, yay. Read the excitement between the lines, it is truly overwhelming. But maybe now that Sai's back on the net, you guys will shut up about him. Keep this up and I will turn off my PMs. Seriously, I will.

Also, went to see my future school's festival yesterday. Guess what I ran into? Effing _Go_. Would've kept my distance, but Sai kept whining, so we had a look – there was this guy there, offering people prizes for solving Tsume-Go problems – that's life and death situations those uninformed, which is me. I solved one and Sai of course solved all the rest – not that I told anyone, it would've been entirely too much trouble.

But Tsume-Go seemed interesting so I did a net search. Turns out there are entire websites dedicated to people making up their own Tsume-Go. I checked one of them out, LADnet, which seriously needs a new name. Shall refer to it henceforth as the Tsume-Go site. Anyway, I even logged in and solved a few. I am apparently 26k rank, whatever that means. Sai, though? It took about hour or so, but he made it all the way up to 5p before I got bored. Anyone any idea what the heck these ks and ps mean anyway?

Also, who ever suggested that we should go to other Go events and maybe do a review of them? I'll think about it. I have no idea how to make reviews, but it would keep Sai happy, so there's that. No way in hell am I telling you which events I'd go, though. You'd end up stalking me or something.

_15 comments._

* * *

**So apparently I suck**. 9th of January

Apparently 27k, or twenty-seventh-kyu means that I am three levels from being bottom scum in the murky pond of Go abilities. And Sai with his 5p or fifth-dan level is near the top. Except it isn't 5p anymore, more like 8p – we skipped ahead on the Tsume-Go and did some more complex ones, and only reason he didn't make it to 9p is because the server crashed. But that's just _that_ site and who cares anyway.

Thanks for the NetGo suggestion. We tried the site and I like it much better than WorldIgoNet. NetGo is much simpler, and they actually give ranks to the players and stuff – and it turns out the user base is much better, so there's more opponents. Sai's climbing the k and p ladder there too – 4p and going up currently. It's really helpful to have the ranks, that way we can avoid the bad players and concentrate onto the big ones – though the automated handicap feature really pisses Sai off. He does not like being forced to play with handicap stones, people. So if you know how to get rid of them, I'd really appreciate it.

I'm still twiddling around the Tsume-Go site, though. It's sort of fun, now that I think about it. Fuck the problem 24441 – it doesn't make sense to Sai either and it's keeping me from advancing to 26k! And you can't skip problems before you're 15k, what the hell?

_27 comments._

* * *

**Deactivated PMs.** 10th of January

I told you I would, but did you listen to me? Of course not. No more game requests for anyone, so there.

_9 comments._

* * *

**Rundown of the Tsume-Go site.** 11th of January

Okay, people have been asking what I think of the site's layout and stuff, so here I go. I'm not exactly expert in these things, but here's just some things I've noticed while trying the thing out.

First of all, the registration is buggy. I got accounts for both me and Sai, and it still keeps telling me every thirtieth problem that I need to register for the rest – I figured a way around it by skipping with Sai, but obviously I can't do that yet on my own account because the site is hugely biased against beginners.

Also, the layout seriously sucks – both on the index page but lot more so in the actual problem section. The Tsume-Go themselves are like tiny – I mean post mark tiny – and I can't make them bigger. Might be because of my screen, I got a huge one, but still, it pisses me off, and I don't want to zoom the screen itself because then the texts get too big to read without scrolling. Also, in the answer section it is really, really annoying that you have to open new windows to see the comments – can't you just put the comments below the solutions, like in logical sites?

The Tsume-Go themselves wary – some are pretty clear and understandable, the others not so much. They're pretty nonsensical in the beginning, though I suppose that's partially the point – find the right spot in middle of the chaos and so forth. Towards the top they get more and more complex, obviously, and I can't say much about them, but Sai tells me he could make better ones without thinking, and that sometimes the site won't accept the right solutions at all, and insists that the wrong ones are right. Might be problem with the person who created the particular problem, rather than the site, though.

Overall, though, it's a fun site. The layout sucks, but I figured where to register pretty much instantly, and the control of the actual Tsume-Go is easy to use – though I really hate how small they are, I need to squint half of the time and they get really annoying when Sai is doing the playing and the graphs get huge. Just fix the bugs and get some more intelligent people make the Tsume-Go themselves, and it'll be an excellent way to waste a lot of time.

_11 comments_

* * *

**Seriously, people, I've covered this already**, 12th of January

I am not Sai, Sai is not "someone I know", and I can't "introduce you" because Sai is a _goddamn ghost_! The whole point of this goddamn blog is for me to get this stuff off of my chest without getting sectioned for it! So, one more time, No, you will never meet Sai in your stupid lives because Sai is dead, his body's probably dust by now, and no one but I can see his miserable ass anymore.

Shut up, Sai, you know what I mean.

And you guys? Go read the opening blog. Here, I'll even give you a link. Link. See? Now stop bothering me.

_16 comments._

* * *

**I am ignoring you all now,** 13th of January

La-la-la.

Also, gonna start blocking all the annoying people. I don't have to put up with your bullshit, after all. My blog, my rules, and you guys annoy the living daylights outta me.

_4 comments._

* * *

**Okay, fine. The story of Sai, part one.** 14th of January

I am graciously writing what Sai wants to tell you guys because some have been asking about the full story and Sai is apparently not happy with my explanation about it. I'll be editing a bit because Sai can go off on a tangent, and I am not using the wishy washy posh way of talking he uses, that's way too much trouble to write. Anyway, the story of Fujiwara no Sai in it's boring glory;

x

"Though the author of this blog glosses it over quite a bit, there was more to my life than just Go. I lived in the Heian Court as part of it – I was not only a Go instructor to the emperor, but also a musician, poet and a courtier. I was also a close confidant for many of the higher standing officials and courtiers, which in the end is the source of my grief and eventual suicide. It was not only my skills as a Go player and a teacher that led me to my death, but also my political influence.

"I am of the Fujiwara clan, and though my father's standing was not great, him being only distantly related to the emperor and having poor social skills which in the caused him fall back into obscurity, the name alone made my standing greater than that of many others. On top of that as the Emperor's personal instructor – and as the instructor of most of the court – I enjoyed close relations with many powerful individuals, the Emperor in particular.

"Koremitsu no Kimi was my rival in all things – in Go, in political standing, and in everything else. I am afraid he held me in contempt. He was the grandson of the former Minister of the Left, and thus enjoyed similar influence as that of mine, having the connections even if his own father did not enjoy a great influence. He, eventually, decided to challenge me in only way he could without causing a stir – and so we were to decide which one of us would be the Go teacher of the Emperor and the court in a single game.

"We played the game in front of the court, of course, and in front of the Emperor himself. I was confident of my victory because though Koremitsu no Kimi was strong, I knew I was stronger in Go. However, it did not go as expected – for chance had it that one of my stones had mixed into his Go-ke and though honour and etiquette would had him hand it over with an explanation, he instead added it to his agehama, among his captured stones.

"I should have not said anything – I could have overcame the advantage given to him by that single, stolen stone. But I was young, idealistic, and thought that by speaking out I could bring the truth forth. He was older and sly, and before I could speak, he saw me intending to do so, and spoke first – accusing me of the crime he himself had committed. It lost me the game, for it disturbed my mental calm and my concentration and, eventually, the game itself.

"I was banished in the result. It was to be only temporary, for me to learn my mistake and then be returned, sans my position as the instructor but still a courtier. I had many friends who exerted their influence to ensure my return – and I suspect with their help, the incident would have been forgotten eventually. But what happened hurt me greatly – not just the betrayal of Koremitsu no Kimi, but that the Emperor, whom I respected and loved, would believe such a thing of me, that I would ever cheat…

"And due to the incident, my reputation of a Go player was irreversibly ruined – even if the court as whole would forget, those dedicated to the game never would. No one would play me again, not to the way they had and if they would, they would forever be suspicious of me, and of whatever trickery they perceived I would do. It was the greatest blow to my heart, the injury I could not heal from.

"So, during the first weeks of my punishment, I made my preparations and drowned my self in a nameless river, surrounded by wisteria trees. But even so, even with that decision, to end my life and shame and prevent a life of misery, I could not let go of my love for Go, and of my desire to play – I had yet to achieve the true height of my skills, yet to play all the games I wished to play, and I had yet to achieve the Hand of God. And so, while my body let go its spark of life, my soul lingered."

x

Well, that was embarrassing. Also it for now, and it'll be a while before we'll do the second part. It took a long time to write this stuff down and edit it in a way that satisfied the idiot ghost, I am not going to do it again anytime soon.

_19 comments._

* * *

**Go event time!** 16th of January

So, Sai and I popped into another Go event – this one was a pro match with an audience and this huge Goban with two people explaining the game. It was between Wakahisa 7th dan and Yoshida 8th dan, with 2nd dan and 6th dan commentators. Pretty boring, but Sai enjoyed himself. Here's a picture of the finished game itself, taken with my phone.

(_big-ass-goban-jpg_)

Sai says that Yoshida could've won if she hadn't attached nearer to the lower left star when she did – if she had gone towards the middle instead or something, and that there was an opening near middle Wakahisa missed that Yoshida could've used, but she didn't notice it either. But I wasn't really following, obviously, and I think I fell asleep somewhere midgame, but I managed to snap the picture so there's that.

I did look around the event itself, that at least was interesting. There were all sort of merchandise on display, and someone tried to make me buy a magazine but with my leet ninja skills I avoided the doom of marketing. Someone was trying to get people to check out WorldIgoNet there too – I snuck in when the guy wasn't looking, and opened all his laptops on NetGo instead. Then I hid behind some decorative plants. I took a picture of his face, but sadly some fat guy photo bombed the picture and you can't see anything

I bought something too. A magnetic mini Goban, the size of my wallet. The hell I'll do with it, I have no idea, but the sucker was just too cute to pass by. Here's a pic and my awesome hand for size comparison. Never mind the scar, I punched a wall way back when, long story.

(_tiny-ass-goban-jpg_)

In other news; someone from the Tsume-Go site contacted me about making some problems for them. I think they're idiots, but Sai likes the idea so we're going to try our hand at the program – they should be sending it sometime this week and unless it is even suckier than their site, you should see Tsume-Go by Sai at the site sometime soon. So that's something to look forward to.

_21 comments._

* * *

**Wakahisa-Yoshida game.** 18th of January

Thanks for whoever linked the ddgKifu program to me, I checked it out and it's awesome. For those unaware, it's just a program you can make kifu with, but still, pretty nifty – especially since you can replay the game hand by hand and stuff. And since there were some people asking for a full analysis for the Wakahisa-Yoshida game, so I figured, what the hell, might as well test the ddgKifu. I had surprising amount of fun re-creating the game, now we just got to hope that I can actually upload the finished product on a blog. So, testing, testing…

(_wakahisa-yoshida-ddgKifu_)

Edit; turns out I can, excellent. Hope you guys have your java up to date. So anyway this is the full Wakahisa-Yoshida game from the Go event few days back, and here are Sai's comments by the hands;

x

1-6: So far both opponents are showing a good grasp of the board and making their claim well.

6-18: the brief corner battle here went well, and both did what they could – I would have not made the leap Wakahisa-san made to the left with the move 9, and would have gone to the 17-5 instead, for a much stronger foundation for the 11th stone but Yoshida-san's reaction at 8 and 10 was good and solid.

18-27; a very brisk encounter, and Wakahisa-san shows his ability to read ahead, he predicted every move and counteracted brilliantly. I disagree with the commentator however, who said that Yoshida-san's hand at 22 was flawed – she is looking ahead as well and laying the foundation for the inevitable struggle for the territory below…

The rest are under the cut.

_27 comments._

* * *

**Sai's Tsume-Go!** 21st of January

We got the program from the Tsume-Go site and I got it to work too, hooray hooray, and of course Sai's been having a blast with it. He's so far made eight different high level problems.

We were aiming for a set of ten, but the program crashed on us during the ninth one, and I'm downloading it again now. Mind the levels while you're trying the finished problems, though and don't bitch at me if you can't solve them. If you know the site you can figure out how to get the right answer sheet to show, but if you cheat, you'll make Sai cry. So think about that, cheaters. You don't want to make Sai cry, do you? Do you?

Tsume-Go links under the cut.

_104 comments._

* * *

**Holy shit, guys.** 23rd of January

Over hundred comments, seriously?

Yeah, Sai's gonna do more Tsume-Go, he had fun with it and it seems the site's satisfied with the result. And no, we're not thinking about charging them, money's not really why Sai's doing it. We ought to have dozen more Tsume-Go ready by the weekend, unless the program decides to crash on us again – I'll post links again when we're done.

Moving right along; Sai had a fun game on NetGo and we're having a bit of a quiet moment today, so I ddgKifu'd that sucker, and am writing down Sai's commentary on it. Zelda, you are about to be served.

_34 comments._

* * *

**Sai vs. zelda.** 23rd of January

(sai-zeldaddgKifu)

1-7: the moves from one to six were solid, but the wisdom of the 7th move escapes me. Though it connects to the 3rd move, it gives me too much influence on the bottom where zelda should've been trying to lessen it.

8-14: the price of the seventh move is seen here, but zelda's answer to my move at 8 and 10 was solid. At the move 13 however, zelda is again giving me too much influence – though I see the thought process behind it, I do not support it. While he does need to protect his own area in the left side, his game play so far is far too defensive.

15-19: these four moves, specially zelda's 17 and 19 should be noted. They look insignificant in grand scheme of things, and the connection at 17 seems weak, but there is a greater plan behind it. I decided to see what would come of it, so I did not cut at 16 and only tested the edges of his boarders at 18 – I'm afraid at that point the game turned completely into Shidou-Go…

The rest under the cut.

_32 comments._

* * *

**Sai's Tsume-Go, part 2**. 26th of January

Firstly, no, Sai won't be reviewing your game or all the games, just the ones he finds interesting. We might make it a weekly thing, but I doubt it, too many other stuff going on. But when ever he has an interesting game, he'll proably want to do a review of it, so it's something you're going to see happening again.

Now, the guys at the site sent a fixed version of the program so it's not crashing anymore – at least not so far. So we've been able to make some more Tsume-Go's for the site, and we're now contemplating making corrections to the ones already existing there, which would take less effort on our part. For now, though, we're taking a break. At least I am. So here's some links and see you guys later.

Links under cut.

_89 comments._

* * *

AN: Wasn't gonna post this so soon, but I already posted more than the 1st chap on tumblr, so what the hell. The rest will be longer time coming because I seriously need to beef up the "chapters" otherwise there will be some which are under 1000 words long. This is like probably the longest chapter of the entire story.

Also, not writing the comments for Hikaru's blogs. Way too much work, especially later on. Might do a after-story piece with snippets from the comments or some threads of Hikaru's followers or whatnot, but not right now. This just Hikaru's show.

Still blaming typos on Hikaru.


	3. February

Warnings: AU, some oocness, excessive use of the internet, lot of made up site and stuff, and Hikaru swearing so much, that I had to mark this M. Seriously, it's for the swearing alone.

* * *

**Go figure**

Blog of the possessed and the obsessive

* * *

**Go Convention.** 2nd of February

Sorry for the long pause, guys, I had to study and all that boring stuff. But now we're back and we bring you another Go event – this time a convention. Apparently they're having the anniversary of some event that happened some while ago, and in honour of it they invited all the old amateur title holders to drink bad tea and coffee and eat a lot of snacks. Result, Go Association full of _geezers_.

(grandpa-convention-jpg)

I had some difficulty blending in that crowd, let me tell you. But I, with my leet ninja skills, managed it admirably – I think the administrative staff ended up thinking I was the shared grandson of some twenty different people there, but whatever.

It was pretty interesting convention, despite everything. First there was this long ass lecture about how the Go Association and the amateur tournaments had changed in the last million decades or so, overall boring but they had some nifty pictures. I especially enjoyed the ones about after parties.

(grandpas'-misspent-youth-jpg)

Damn, but those geezers could drink back then.

After the long ass lecture, there was socialising. Yay. People wandered around and played Go, mostly, few got drinks – all had to use the bathroom, judging by the lines there. Using my better judgement, I did not take pictures of old men seriously needing to go. Anyway, lot of reminiscing about this and that game and this and that opponent – and who the hell was Inoue anyway? Half of the damned people mentioned him.

(grandpas-got-spirit-jpg)

They got into a fight over a move. It was damn hilarious. Also, that spot marked red on the right? Sai was there. See the huge impact he makes. It's pity you can't see him though, he was giggling himself purple at the time – which was also damn hilarious. Shut up, Sai, you know you make a lot of funny faces.

Also, does anyone know who the guy in white suit is, the one who nearly got his glasses knocked off? Everyone kept calling him sensei. Made me wonder if I was missing school or something, kinda creepy.

Anyway, there was a dia show and another lecture and in the end there was a small round robin tournament that people could take part in, thirty minutes per game. This guy won, though he did not seem satisfied with his price.

(where's-the-money-eh-jpg)

Admittedly, that is one seriously pathetic cup, I would've preferred cash too.

Also review for _Sai vs. diogenes_ under cut.

_47 comments._

* * *

**Playing Go, playing Go, Go Go go to hell you fuckers.** 5th of February

Fuck NetGo.

Okay, fine, NetGo is absolutely lovely and there is nothing wrong with it, the site is amazing and flowery and everything is dandy and Sai is very happy to play against all you lovely people. Me though? Not so much.

So fuck NetGo very much.

Okay, anyway. I made an account for myself, since I've gotten far along with my own meagre studies that Sai thinks I might be ready to play some low level people. I did the mistake of registering in as _blogger_ and guess what happened? Yeah, challenges. Fucking lot of challenges. And after that, everyone kicking my ass without mercy and then acting all disappointed when they win. "I thought you'd be stronger" my fucking ass, you assholes. I've told you I'm a fucking beginner so you can stick your fuc –

Okay, okay, I'm calm, I'm cool. Sai had to drag me off the computer and pin me to the floor for a while, but I'm cool. Except that I'm still pissed off, especially at that one fucker, what's his name, Ako something, I don't even care, the asshole did nothing but capture stones and I had my profile marked that I wanted to play those my level and no one stronger, but noo, the goddamned fucking asshole couldn't –

Fine, FINE! I'll blog about this some other time. Fucking piece of –

_59 comments._

* * *

**I'm cool now. No, really.** 5th of February

Changed my nick in NetGo to something else. NOT GONNA TELL YOU WHAT THOUGH. So there. And you know, now that the assholes among us – and there are a lot of those it turns out – can't get their kicks by pissing me off, I'm actually enjoying playing a bit. Surprise, surprise that staying anonymous to you people makes my day better. Ha!

Also, yeah, I've played before getting into NetGo. I live with Sai, guys, how the hell would I be able to escape playing? I bought that magnetic Goban thingy at the convention, remember? We play with that. Granted it's a 15 by 15 grid, not 19 by 19, but Goban's a Goban.

(tiny-ass-game-jpg)

Yeah, I suck, and yeah, Sai's playing Shidou-Go against me, but hell if I care. Should probably get a real Goban, though, but… nah. The magnetic one is good enough for now and if we really want to play a game on full Goban, we can do with ddgKifu, so that's fine.

Besides, the magnetic Goban is still cute as hell. Just look at that sucker.

_49 comments._

* * *

**We've been through this guys.** 6th of February

Sai is a ghost. Read the first blog. Link.

Also, no, I am not nuts.

_153 comments._

* * *

**Existentialism and Go**. 9th of February

Well you guys took the bit between your teeth, didn't you? Nice to see some intelligent conversation going on for once, though – and only 3 game requests to Sai too, I think that's a record!

First of all, we don't know why Sai is a ghost. He just is. I guess he whined too much before dying that the afterlife just didn't want him until he learned to shut up. Shut up Sai. See, I'm actually teaching you something for a change!

He's hitting me with his fan now. Would be terrifying except he's so damned polite that I can barely feel it.

Anyway, since there were so questions about what it is like to be ghost and what has he been doing as a ghost, we decided to list some key points – and we're probably going to do Story of Sai part Two sometime soon. First though, let's take a deeper look into the life of a ghost. Whoo-oo…

Firstly, Sai has been ghost about thousand years – it's hard to tell exactly how long since he isn't really all that sure what year it was when he died, and I'm too lazy to try and figure out it myself. He can't remember much of the first few decades except that he drifted? Or something. He remembers stopping drifting when he encountered some guys in sitting by some sort of river side pavilion, playing Go – which he, being obsessive, had to take a closer look at. And somehow he ended up in the Goban these guys were playing on. This is the Goban number 1.

Sai isn't sure again how long he was in that Goban, but it was burned in a fire at some point and he had to leave – again a bit of drifting until he came about town or something and found a shop from where he found Goban number 2 – which only lasted for so long too. The Gobans back then weren't all solid like they are now, so they didn't take wear and tear that well. Or being dropped off from a cart like happened to this Goban. (Here's what I mean, Mokuga Shitan no Kikyoku)

Anyway, Sai went from Goban to Goban like this until they started getting thicker and heavier and more lasting and eventually, little under two hundred years ago, he ran into a guy, pretty much like me, who could see him. (Because the gobans he is in get these spiritual stains, looks like someone spilled blood on them which dried. That's how Sai figured he could pop up and come at me, because I was complaining about the stains). Anyway, he lived with that guy about twenty, thirty years before the guy died and Sai went into the Goban the guy died on – which is where I found him. Also should be noted that it was the longest lasting Goban he's been in, hundred and forty years or thereabouts.

We'll do the whole story time about the other guy later, on Story of Sai part two. Turns out that the guy Sai was with? He became pretty famous. Actually bought a book about him the other day, sorta interesting.

Anyway, aside from haunting Goban and occasionally people, Sai doesn't have any powers. Except to annoy and play Go, and I have to place all the stones for him, obviously. And I don't know if a priest would see him or if he could be exorcised, I haven't met a priest since and I'm not going to have him exorcised even if I met someone who could do it.

This Go thing turns out to be pretty fun, in the end, so I'm going to see where it's going.

And Sai is strangling me, so I'm gonna stop here.

_93 comments._

* * *

**Ninja time!** 11th of February

I heard from a friend that his brother was taking part in this junior high tournament that's between the Go-clubs of various junior high schools in Tokyo, and guess what I did? Yep. I snuck in.

Okay, it was a bit more complicated than that. I had to get a uniform first – paid my friend to get me one of his bro's spare uniforms, the guy has a couple, thanks to being a idiot and ruining one every six months or so. Didn't quite fit right, but I think I was ok. Then, once suitably camouflaged, me and My trusty cell phone made our way in – with Sai trailing after us, of course. I mean me. You know what I mean.

(kaio's-fancy-ass-front-gates-jpg)

This is where the whole thing was going down. I walked in like a boss, and when a teacher stopped me I just asked directions to the tournament, all serious faced and solemn, and the guy didn't suspect a thing. So, in we go, into this big-ass classroom, full of people. Something like 14 teams there, each with three people – and of course me, but no one much paid mind to me. All I had to do was avoid my friend's bro – because I doubted he would've been happy about me having his uniform – and I was a-ok.

(this-guy-sucks-at-cheating-jpg)

Saw these two guys playing, one of them messed up the board and tried to re-arrange it wrong so that he'd win, the pathetic loser. I was almost tempted to do the re-arranging for them, but the other guy ripped the loser a new one, which was pretty fun. I need to get a tape recorder, some of the stuff I hear in Go events is pretty hilarious.

And then there the matches were set and the games begun. I looked at some of the games, took a pic or two of few one – will do a whole montage at the bottom – but mostly I watched the Kaoi Junior High's games. Those guys? Seriously strong. Sai could wipe the floor with them, of course, but thank gods I wasn't one of the poor suckers playing them.

Anyway, Kaio won the tournament, which was pretty much given. Overall, nifty little event, though it sorta sucked the joy out of things that there wasn't all that much entertainment besides the go. In most Go Association events there are vendors and people talking about stupid stuff. This event felt kinda lacking without all of that. But nifty otherwise.

(Iwana-Ayu-first-boards-jpg)

(Tai-Hamachi-third-boards-jpg)

(Kaio-Sawara-first-boards-jpg)

…

_98 comments._

* * *

**Story of Sai, part 2.** 14th of February

(deleted because apparently people get pissed when you talk about Kuwabara Torajiro. Also, you bastards made Sai cry, so fuck you.)

_185 comments._

* * *

AN: I think Hikaru's second post on this chap is my favourite one so far.

still blaming typos on him.


	4. April and May

Warnings: AU, some oocness, excessive use of the internet, lot of made up site and stuff, and Hikaru swearing so much, that I had to mark this M. Seriously, it's for the swearing alone.

* * *

**Go figure**

Blog of the possessed and the obsessive

* * *

**So here we are again.** 24th of April

After a break. Hi again, you assholes, what's up? And just in case if you are wondering, yes Sai took a break from NetGo because you guys are assholes, happy now? Because we sure are.

Anyway. Graduated from old school and started in a new one during the break, no biggy. Bigger school this one and the uniforms suck, but what the hell, guy's got to do what guy's got to do. Carefully avoided all the clubs too, including the Go one (mainly because it has only one member, so that's kinda lame). Also the clubs in this school all have assholes, jerks and creeps for captains so yeah, I'm keeping my distance.

As for what to comes to go… well, taking a bit of a break from the net's been fun. We've been trying variety of programs that lets you play against computer simulations and whatnot – Sai can kick the pants out of those things, even at the highest settings, but it's good practice and he's figuring he's learning some more standard modern techniques which apparently is a good thing. I've been playing too, mostly against him – who knows I've improved or not, he still keeps kicking my ass.

And what happens to NetGo while I'm gone? Pro players start using it – well, at least according to the rumours circulating around the forums. Of course. What else could possibly happen?

Tch.

So we shall make our comeback to NetGo soonish. See you assholes in the Go hell.

_143 comments._

* * *

**Go Weekly and other crap.** 28th of April

After having a look at the server and the forums, I decided that I seriously needed to brush up my knowledge abnout professional go players - which is close to nil as it is. So I went to my gramps and stole all his old Go weekly magazines and now me and Sai've been going through them, confirming and debunking the rumours of this and that player on NetGo being this and that pro player.

So far we know that _sakura_ is not Sakurai 3rd-dan, but Sakuraba 2nd-dan, _jissaka_ is Horri 4th-dan, _dunedain3_ is Koguchi 2nd-dan and _maika_ is Maita 3rd-dan. The rest listed on _Seshelock's_ thread haven't been online when we've been so we don't know for sure about them, and Sai doesn't want to say one way or other before he gets the chance to play them.

And yeah, Sai is very happy about the chance to play them. Granted, even they don't prove that big of a challenge to him, but they're way above your garden variety NetGo user. We will probably be using those games for some reviews and such since they've been pretty good apparently, but that'll have to wait until later, until Sai's played enough – he apparently feels like he has to catch up on all the time he missed, the freak.

Shut up Sai. You know what I mean.

Also, this Toya Meijin guy? Sai _seriously_ wants to play him. I mean, I've never seen him actually want to play someone in particular, just anyone in general, but Toya Meijin? He'd give both his arms and legs for the chance, if he could. It's kind of creepy actually, in a ghostly stalkerish way.

_Sai vs. Hattor_ review under cut.

_243 comments._

* * *

**Yeah, yeah…** 1st of May

Despite everything, we're not idiots and we know that the chances of something like a Title Holder deciding to dick around in the internet are about as big as Sai's chances of getting laid. But it's a fun idea, don't you think?

In the mean while, I bring you another go event – a pro-game that took place between Ogata 9th-dan and Morishita 9th-dan at the Association last weekend. I ninjaed my way inside, made excellent work on blending into the crowd and then I did what I do best. Spied on people and tried not to get caught. Sai did a whole overview of the game itself, I'll put that under the cut because he got really excited so it got really long, but anyway.

First of all, lot and lot more people than in the last pro-game I went to. I mean, twice as many if not more, and I think there were a lot of pro-players there just to watch. I guess ninth dans going at it is big deal, or something. I spotted some people I've seen in the Go weeklies, and tried to catch them in their best:

(sakurai-shut-your-mouth-geez-jpg)

(what's-with-your-face-jpg)

(aah-kill-it-with-fire-jpg)

As you see, professional Go players are very classy folk. Also, I caught a pic of some old guy trying to look up Sakurai's skirt, but Sai's telling me not to post it. Hmmm, will post it anyway;

(meaning-of-life-jpg)

Aside from highly classy pros, there was the usual lot. Geeks, old men, old women, and fangirls. Wait, what?

(ogata-sensei's-so-hawt-apparently-jpg)

Yikes. Remind me not to go to pro-games with the seriously pretty pro's and such, I don't think I could stand the crowd if they're anything like these gals. Ogata-sensei, you have my sympathies, you really do. Makes me seriously wonder why the white suits though – not exactly good for camouflage and with these sort of people after you, you seriously need some camouflage man. Like, asap.

And moving right along, we got our usual vendors, though no one was trying to pitch the WorldIgoNet anymore – pity, I would've loved to try NetGoBomb it again, maybe this time I would've actually caught the guy's face on camera. I avoided cute mini Gobans this time, though I did take the order forms for Go Weekly, just in case I can scrounge up the money for it. Might happen, might not. Don't get your hopes up, Sai.

Also, check this out, turns out there was a guy there looking for me! At least so it sounded like, I heard him talking about some blogger maybe being there, and yeah my blogger senses were tingling. And yes, I have ego the size of Tokyo, thanks for noticing.

(Blogger's-number-one-fan-maybe-jpg)

Probably just wanted the chance to "meet Sai" or something. I kept my distance of course, and I doubt the guy even noticed me. I, unlike Ogata-sensei, do camouflage very well.

Anyway, the whole thing ended with the usual speeches and peace talks – Ogata ninth-dan lost, but only barely. I think the fangirls disturbed his calm, the poor guy. Then there was the usual chatter and buzz and boredom and eventually I slipped off. Fun event, all together, all though I am seriously starting to get creeped out by Go-fans.

Sai's analysis on Ogata-Morishita game under cut.

_285 comments._

* * *

**Couple of game reviews and some Tsume-Go. **18th of May

Been really busy with stuff, school mostly, and haven't been able to get to net in a while because my internet privileges were revoked by a seriously bad grade. But my grade has now been corrected, the internet has been restored and all is right in the world again. Mostly. Except for the fact that it turns out my new school has seriously anal disposition towards people wanting to use their computer classrooms for their own evil purposes. Of course.

And I am too cheap to go into net café, so we didn't have much to do in the intervening days, so we did some catching up. Sai reviewed his games against Sakuraba 2nd-dan, Horri 4th-dan, Koguchi 2nd-dan, and Maita 3rd-dan, with one of my and his game thrown in there for beginners who have been asking we review some teaching games. Also, we made some dozen Tsume-Go for beginners too and send them to the site, and they've been added to the collective. Soon, the whole website will have nothing but Sai's problems in there.

I bet that would make you creeps happy.

Links under cut

_235 comments._

* * *

**Lololol.** 20th of May

Okay, so. There are these things which happen occasionally when I'm with Sai, because you know, he's a ghost from long-ass time ago and doesn't know jack shit about anything, and sometimes it gets pretty ridiculous when he sees something new, or hears about something and has hard time believing it.

(I'm writing this totally behind his back, by the way. I tried to write similar post ages ago, but he kept dragging me away from the computer. Now, though, I got him distracted by some kifu and such and when ever he looks up I switch windows so he doesn't see what I'm actually writing. Like a ninja!)

Okay, so. Have you ever actually seriously tried to explain someone how airplanes work? "Giant metal bird!" came up a lot in that conversation. Also, "does it have feathers" and "What does it eat?" and here is me; trying not to burst into laughter during maths class.

Then there were cars, that was the first one. "Magic horseless carriages?" and of course the driver was a wizard. What else?

Today was the best one, though. We were talking about umbrellas and about how they hadn't change in, like, ever – except ours are more compact and generally more useful than the ancient paper stuff his people used. And somehow, like these things go, we ended up talking about the moon. Well okay I might've mentioned it just to see his face when I told him that people had actually gone to the moon.

"That moon?" he keeps asking me, "that moon?"

No, the fourth moon of Jupiter. Of course that moon. I showed him a vid about the moon landing later, but I don't think it's still sunken in. One thing's for sure, I am not explaining what vacuum of space is, and we are not even touching on stellar radiation or any of that crap.

Let him think there's a rabbit in the moon, making cakes. Much easier for me.

…

Okay, he saw. And apparently he has no idea that there was a rabbit in the moon, making cakes. Now he's wondering what moon cakes taste like and if the _astro's nuts_ have had any yet. Brb, I got a floor to roll on while laughing my ass off.

_285 comments._

* * *

**Go lesson, number 1.** 22nd of May

Though most of our creepy following seems to consist of experienced players and assholes, there are also some who know nothing about Go – though why they're following this blog if they don't know? Whatever. Anyway, those poor uninformed souls have been asking us if we know any good sites that teach you the basics and whatnot, and Sai decided that to hell with that noise, we'll give those lessons our selves. Not a good idea, but of course he _was_ a teacher way back when… and those were never known for their good ideas. They became teachers for one, so I guess we couldn't expect anything better for them.

…ouch.

Anyway, for my mental health I decided just to go with it, so we will be doing a series of tutorials about basics and rules and other stuff and whatnot, I don't even know, with ddgKifu's added for additional clarity. If you have any specific questions, you can ask in comments and we'll see if we have to time to go over those too.

Go lesson 1 under cut.

_185 comments._

* * *

**It is hooottt…** 29th of May

The AC broke. I'm melting. Save me.

Okay, so, we probably ought to have expected the flood of beginner questions after the last post, stupid me for making that offer. But since it was made and I seriously need a distraction from the way I smell, we might as well.

Firstly, the beginning moves of the game. To understand this you got to understand the concept of influence, though. Influence is what you have on the board after you've moved – or not have, depending on your opponent. You got a corner with only black stones sitting around, then black has the _territory_ there. Rest of the board full of white stones? Well then white has _influence_ there. Think of it as a glow that the stones have, it's strengthened towards other stones of the same colour and towards the boarders of the board. The stronger the influence, the harder the eventual invasion to the area. naturally the stones got to be alive when you do this, but we'll talk about dead and living stones in a moment. So you got this? Okay.

Now to the starting moves. Firstly what's joseki? They're the most common, agreed upon beginning moves. There's not really any set joseki or any right joseki, but there are several known styles, stragetically sound and pretty much known everywhere which give the opponent some idea about what you are about to do and what he/she/whatever can do in answer. There are (I'll just link some more informative explanations here) komoku 3-4, hoshi 4-4, sansan 3-3, mokuhazushi 3-5, takamoku 4-5, omokuhazushi 6-3, otakamoku 6-4, gonogo 5-5 joseki and so forth.

(Sai used to use old-ass style in the beginning and everyone called in Shusaku's joseki, but most people got that bit wrong. It really was just komoku joseki in it's variety of variations. What made it Shusaku's "something" wasn't really the opening moves because it was popular as shit way back when – it was his reaction to other moves were and how he protected his influence around his komoku openings and so forth. Mainly, Sai used Shusaku's _kosumi_ which isn't a opening move but answer to opponent's low approach after a komoku joseki. Meaning, Sai went 3-4, opponent went 5-3 and Sai went 4-5, and that, in a nutshell, is the opening of the famous Shusaku's kosumi.)

So, the opening moves usually follow the joseki so what you do in your first 1-5 moves can really matter what you do even hundred moves from then, depending on what you actually do. If you go with certain joseki, you can expect certain sort of follow ups from your opponents, and you can figure out proper ways of following that move. You know, granted that you took the time to actually study what the certain joseki is all about and how to follow it and so forth.

Sure, you can dick around the board however you want and just randomly slap stones down without care in the world – but unless you're really good at what you do and actually have some idea about what the hell you are doing, you're gonna get dished. Seriously.

Secondly, life and death. This is bit trickier because there are something like millions of situations about this – this is what Tsume-Go are all about people and I think the easiest way to figure this stuff out is to solve lots of Tsume-Go until you start to seeing these things for yourself. But, I'll give this a rundown.

Okay, alive group is a group that can't be taken – because they either have two eyes so the opponent just can't move in, or because if the opponent moves in, it is pretty much inevitable that you will end upon with two eyes in result. So you got that territory pretty much secured right and even if you pass ten times a row, the opponent can't take it? Well… sometimes group can be alive in one point and wind up dead in another, so you can't just go off messing about, you need to watch out for that shit.

And dead group is obviously group that can be taken. If you got only one eye and you're surrounded? You're dead, and even if you move to try and counter your opponent, you'll just speed up the inevitable. And this is where fake eyes come in, as well as unsecured territories between your stones. That three row empty space might look pretty even if you're surrounded – but then your opponent puts a stone in the middle, and you put stone beside it thinking you can take the stones and sure, you can, but in the end you'll end up with only one empty space in the middle and yeah, snap, the whole group is gone and now your badass opponent has all your territory. All your base are belong to him now.

So what you do when your stones are dead? Leave them. Don't try to save them because in the end you'll just give the territory away. You might be able to take your opponent later on, get those stones living again – so play on my wayward son.

And even if you don't ignore it, and end up loosing punch of stones and huge junk of territory? Don't be a chicken shit at this point – and yeah, this is another thing people asked about. If you lose stones, even if you lose something like twenty of them, doesn't mean that you're going to lose. It's the territory that counts, you know – and that huge ass territory your opponent just got? It's not secure. It doesn't have an eye yet; it's just bunch of open space and, if you're clever about it, you might be able to kill it.

So think about that.

Also Go lesson 2 under cut.

_163 comments._

* * *

AN: April ended up being so short month that I chucked it together with May. And now I'm sad to say that my HikaGo mood is now over and there won't be updates until i get interested in HikaGo again and as these things go, it will probably take months if not longer. The boomerang will come back eventually, but yeah. i am off to dick around the FF7 fandom for a while.

Also, I rated this story as M because Hikaru's language is only going to get worse. And very creative.

Typos are all Hikaru's and totally belong to the story. Totally.


	5. June

Warnings: AU, some oocness, excessive use of the internet, lot of made up site and stuff, and Hikaru swearing so much, that I had to mark this M. Seriously, it's for the swearing alone. Info dumbing for no particular reason

* * *

**Go figure**

Blog of the possessed and the obsessive

* * *

**Little bit about Gobans.** 3rd of June

I got my very own legged Goban today! My Go maniac gramps caught me playing on the mini goban, bitched at me until I played him and then decided that damn that noise, I'm getting you a new one. Go players: I will never understand you but damn…

(pretty-ass-goban-jpg)

Sai is very happy. We already had a couple of games – in which he totally destroyed my poor, poor ass, and I will never forgive him. Not that he cares; he's still whirling around the room like a lunatic. The stones, though… damn, I guess I will have to learn how to hold them the right way, the fancy forefinger-middlefinger-style. Haven't had to yet, with the computer and magnetic thing, but… ah well.

Also, I've been given two separate lectures about what is and is not a good Goban. My cute magnetic thing? Apparently it's for suckers and what I really need is actual good thing with nineteen by nineteen grid. Also there are a lot of differences with even good gobans, with wood and size and make and so forth. So I thought I'd go over these things by their price range and so forth,

First of all, my magnetic mini Goban is probably one of the cheapest sort there are – it cost me only 950 yen. But then, it is mini and not a full Goban anyway. From there we go to

Foldable Gobans that come with glass/plastic stones. There are couple of types, the thin ones which break if you sneeze at them, the hollow ones that has spaces for the stone boxes inside them and then the slotted ones which are the most expensive of these guys. From 1,000 to 20,000 yen, depending on where and which one you buy.

Then we move to table gobans, the legless ones that, surprise, surprise, sit on the table. Like the sort you see in Go-salons and such. Now there's differences in these guys too – in thickness and wood type. You want a really cheap one, go for 3cm/1.3inch Shinkaya board, you'll get it maybe for about 3,000 yen. And if you want a really fancy one, 6cm/2.4inch Kaya board is your friend, and you get to pay at least 70,000 yen for this sucker, probably more.

And then to legged ones. And at this point I probably ought to list the woods and such.

Firstly, _Shin Kaya_ or _Spruce_. This is like Fake Ass Kaya which is sorta like Kaya, but not, it's cheap and plentiful and yeah. Lots of boards made from this one. It's lesser quality though,

There's also _Hiba_ but I think this is a bit rare. The wood's really pale, and it's not quite as expensive as the rest, except for Shin Kaya

Also there's this wood called _Agathis_ from New Zealand, but I don't know much about that.

Then we got _Katsura_, that's common Goban wood, and more affordable than Kaya. Lot of foldable boards are made of this and so are the legged ones too. Pretty nifty, but of course nothing beats Kaya

And lastly, _Kaya_, which is expensive as hell and probably all the Go Association Gobans are Kaya. Now there are differences to Kaya too, depending where it grew. _Hyuga Kaya_ is the prettiest, being sort of yellowish, and the grain is superior. And of course Hyuga Kaya is the most expensive. The rest are usually just stacked under the name of _Hon-Kaya_, but there are some differences between where they came from, Honsu, Shikoku, Kyushu, etc. Especially as far as price goes. But where ever it comes from, Kaya tends to add a lot to the price tag, but for a good reason.

Now, to our legged friends. There's lot of variety in the sizes, the leg designs and so forth. And of course the price tags. My board is a 6cm/2,4inch (plus legs) Katsura and gramps paid about 50,000 yen for it. So these things? Not cheap. The same on Kaya would've been something like 100,000 yen, or more.

And when you get to thicknesses like 18cm/7,1 inches, or 21cm/8,3inches? Even with Shinkaya you won't get away with anything less but 150,000 yen. And for Hon Kaya, well, hope you have at least 350,000 yen in your pocket.

And of course, you want stones too. And if you want really good ones, sea-shell and slate ones? That's another 100,000 yen.

Go is such a nice, cheap hobby, isn't it?

_263 comments._

* * *

**Go lesson 3**. 3rd of June

Sorry, forgot.

Go lesson 3 under cut.

_175 comments._

* * *

**Permissions for everyone**. 6th of June

Apparently bad translations of my blog have been circulating here and there and some people are asking me if they can do "official" translations in English and Chinese and whatnot.

Sure, what the hell. I have no idea why someone would want to translate this stuff, but whatever. Have at it, I don't really care. Just link them back to me so that I can add links to the sidebar to the translations. And no you don't need to translate whatever comments you get back to me – the hell would I want to read them? Half of the time I don't want to read the comments I get in Japanese, for fuck's sake.

Also, for a chance, Sai reviewed a game on NetGo, so;

Sai vs. krrah review under cut.

_243 comments._

* * *

**No ninjaing this time.** 11th of June

No I'm not going to go to Kaio for the Go-club spring tournament – are you nuts? With all of you knowing that I was there the last time? Yeah, no way in hell. Y'all show up and probably rape me or something. With Go. Ugh. Did not need that mental image.

Sai has given up on me acting all civil on the net, by the way. He's just shaking his head and going tsk tsk at me. I think he secretly enjoys it but his proper Heian mannerisms stop him from saying so. Which you know is kinda weird because I've looked into Heian people – they were raunchy motherfuckers. Sometimes literally

Gods, didn't need that mental image either! Geez, what is wrong with me?! Ugh, ew, blergh.

I'm going to go play Go now. For crying out loud things have gotten really bad when I feel like I need to play Go to feel better. Geez.

_175 comments._

* * *

**Some reviews and a lesson. **15th of June

Sai's reviewing some games again and we did another lesson. Also' we've been doing some Tsume-Go at the site on and off, I'm too lazy to even link them anymore – if you want to find them, just click the "creator" link in some of Sai's old Tsume-Gos, you'll find the new ones in the list.

I am lazy today. Gonna get a soda and lay around all day.

Rest under cut.

_275 comments._

* * *

**NetGo, NetGo, and NetGo**. 24th of June

That's pretty much all we've been doing. Playing, playing some more and playing a little bit more for the sake of playing. But it turns out, that's a good thing? Apparently. So here's what happened.

Sai was contacted by NetGo staff – and yeah, it was actually Sai's account they PM'd – about him becoming a mod. Well, that's a bit awkward because Sai can't moderate himself out of a paper bag, not to mention about using a computer or working a site – I'm the one doing all the work here, after all - and there is no way in hell I'm going to do it either. But apparently the NetGo staff were really keen on us joining the site somehow, so guess who are administrators now? (Well, it's Sai actually but still, who's doing all the work here? Sai still thinks computers are magic boxes, you know!)

(Okay, ow, he doesn't anymore. But he did!)

Except we're so totally not doing any administrative work. Instead this is what we're doing so far: There is now a new page on NetGo website called tutorials. We've re-posted all our lessons there so far, and will be posting the rest there as well. We're also doing hand by hand guides and maybe tutorial videos but I don't know about that yet – would have to speak in them or something and I'm not too hot for that idea.

There will be probably some other stuff we will be doing for NetGo – and no, we're not getting paid for this, it's just for fun for us. For now, though, we're only doing the tutorials. I'm probably going to also start my own tutorial string there - because though I'm already 4k (yeah, take that suckers) I'm still way closer to a total beginner than Sai, so I can do this experience piece and how I moved on from this or that problem and so forth.

It's probably gonna be fun. Also, we get pre-warned about changes to the site and servers and stuff, so that's nice.

_312 comments._

* * *

**Snippet reviews.** 27th of June.

Now that we're doing big reviews on NetGo, it leaves this blog without stuff like that, so we will be doing something different. Every now and then we will take someone who's at the bottom of their kyu ranks in NetGo, take a look at their games, and then do a small review about their worst flaws and what they ought to work on and stuff like that. – you know, just helping people improve. And I mean bottom from the kyu ranks, like 25k and below. So if you're one of these guys and would like some pointers, comment or something and we just might have a look at you.

Also we did a huge post on influence – which seems to be one of the things beginners have hardest time grasping – on NetGo. Link.

Alright, because Sai's a sadist and sometimes I'm secretly a masochist, Sai's gonna review some of my games.

All my misery under the cut.

_268 comments._

* * *

**Some stuff about territories**. 29th of June.

We got another beginner question which I am going to fill, this about territory counting.

Okay, so, in Go you win by counting the territory you surround. Well… not always. There are different ways to go about this, and different rules. For example, in some games the captured stones count as well as the territory surrounded. In others, you also count your own stones as territory, and not just the open territory. It depends on whatever rules you and your opponent play with.

For example NetGo only counts for captured territory and nothing else. I like this because it's nice and simple and good for beginners – and like I said last time, it doesn't matter how many stones you capture or have captured. But in NetGo you can also work with the Japanese, Chinese or the Ing counting methods, so I'll explain those here.

So, by Japanese rules your points are counted by the territory and the stones you've captured. First you determine which groups are alive and which are dead and so forth, and then remove all the dead stones from the board – and add them to your captured stones, your agehama. Then you take the stones you've captured, the prisoners, and you fill your opponent's territory with them – basically, you reduce their points. And of course they do the same. Then for easier counting, you add the empty area together and count what territory is left – and of course take the agreed Komi into count too. And voila.

So, by Japanese rules having your stones captured does come back to bite you in the ass and if you capture your opponent's stones it's always point to you – so there you got to be more careful about that. Just don't decide to be an asshole and just try to capture your opponent's stones and nothing else, trust me, that'll get you nowhere unless your opponent is a real idiot.

Then the Chinese rules. Chinese count your own stones on the board and the empty space your stones surround, both which are worth one point, one moku. It all starts the same as with Japanese and, hell, with every other counting method. You check which groups area dead and which are alive according to your rules. Then you figure what areas are yours. Then you remove dead stones, which are placed in your opponent's bowl, which makes this a whole different set of rules from the Japanese ones, right there.

Okay, now some tricks with counting territories. When you rearrange the board, make the blocks of your territory even – multiples of ten points is a good way to go. Just remove your stones from certain area and add them elsewhere in your territory, to make the open space even and easy for counting. And this might make your freak out a bit when your opponent does it, but remember, both the open space and the stones are worth the same amount of points, so even if your opponent hollows out his whole territory, he doesn't actually add to his score.

Also, there is another trick to Chinese area counting. Because every space on the board counts in the end, only one really has to count their points – there are only so many points you can win, after all, it's a limited space, so what your opponent doesn't have is either yours or is a empty point between territories which doesn't count for either of you.

Then there's the Ing method. This is the easiest, but what you need to do first is see that both stone sets have exactly 180 stones (some only have 160 per piece, you see, so that sucks). Also to note that Ing has higher komi than most, usually 8 points, 7,5 if the game ends in tie, so keep that in mind. Now, what you do with Ing follows the Chinese method a bit, in that your stones count as points and captured stones are returned to their respective owners and don't count as points. Also, by the end of this, there is no "territory" top count, not really, just stones.

Okay, here is how it works. You determine the dead stones and return them to their owners. Then white places down four stones in black's territory, all four worth 2 points a piece, so they're the Komi. And then comes the fun part – both black and white fill out their territories with their stones. Like, all the territories, until the board is nothing but black and white. And the guy with empty bowl by the end of this? The winner.

There are other methods too, but these are the three big ones. And of course there is the NetGo rules too, which only count the territory and nothing else. But anyway, that's it for today, kiddies.

_296 comments._

* * *

AN: If you don't care about the info bits, just skip them. You have the ability to not to read. I am trying to learn Go and Go Figure is my tool of learning, and you can just suck it.

All mistakes are totally part of the story because Hikaru is like eleven or something. seriously. All intentional.


	6. July

Warnings: AU, some oocness, excessive use of the internet, lot of made up site and stuff, and Hikaru swearing so much, that I had to mark this M. Seriously, it's for the swearing alone. Might turn the rating down though...

* * *

Blog of the possessed and the obsessive

* * *

**How many times does this make?** 2nd of July

Link to the goddamn first post, read it because I am not going over this again.

The fact that Sai is a ghost is not going to change, people. I don't actually have the powers to bring the dead back to life no matter what you think.

_254 comments._

* * *

**So, here's a thing.** 5th of July

Apparently the preliminaries of the Pro Exam are going on now, and I should do a piece about them. Well, tough luck. The fuck do I knew about the pro-exams? Okay, okay, fine. I know that shit ton of people take it, and only three pass, and that insei tend to have better luck than most and apparently it is a huge thing that someone named Toya Akira is taking it?

This is me: not giving a crap.

Moving right along. We've gotten lot of requests – or well, permissions – from lower kyu players and have been looking into the games of user named _ikkari12_ in the past couple of things. So, ikkari, if you're reading this, your time is up. Face your doom.

Review under cut.

_295 comments._

* * *

**Event time!** 9th of July

I was bored so I thought I'd check out the NNC cup game, between Murase 9th-dan and Yoshinaga 2nd-dan. Talk about uneven levels, but I suppose Yoshinaga is one of those recently made pro's who just haven't had the time to rise up to high level yet? Whatever, so, anyway, event. Yay.

(strange-old-men-gave-me-candy-was-creepy-jpg)

Very auspicious start to this event. Anyway, Sai did the review about the finished game again, that's on the bottom so let us never mind that and talk about the actual reason I am there. To avoid vendors and be a troll to the WorldIgoNet sales persons. And yeah, there was one and I like a boss ninjaed my way there and messed about.

(NetGo-oh-noes-jpg)

I think this guy might be the same one as the last time and yeah, his expression is highly satisfying. Will have to do that again. I think WorldIgoNet has some sort of deal with the Association or something since it keeps popping up on the events. Word of advice: CHANGE TO NETGO. Seriously. Better layout, better user base, better system, better everything, and I'm an admin. You can't go wrong with that!

(what-the-hell-is-this-guy-doing-jpg)

Found this guy walking around in circles around potted plant. Still a bit unsure if I was interrupting a intricate mating dance or not.

No one was looking for me this time, I think, how sad. Not that I care, I could make my way free as a bird and every time someone noticed me doing anything, all they did was give me candy. This event had some weird, weird people. Oh, well, I got some free candy, Sai got his daily dose of Go and I even got to troll somebody, life is good.

Murase-Yoshinaga game review under cut

_164 comments_.

* * *

**Some stuff and a SIKRIT PROJECT, SHHH**. 13th of July

With the summer hols here, yay yay wohoo, me and Sai got some more free time than usually, and you guys get to reap the benefits. Lots more new Tsume-Go, couple new lessons at NetGo, three NetGo game reviews, review of my and Sai's game and even comments upon random pro-game we saw in the Go Weekly. Links below, as usual.

Now, Sai and I are doing a Secret Stuff For NetGo for a while, you'll get to see the results of the stuff hopefully soon. Sadly, it's not quite on the level of industrial spying or stealing some nations declaration of independence, or anything like that, but hell, I'll take even little secret stuff if I can get it. That's what we ninjas do.

In other news, I am teaching Sai what a _troll_ is in terms of internet. I think he secretly approves and is now contemplating trolling of his own. How he'll manage it, I have no idea, but this ought to be interesting to see.

Shitton of links and 26kyu player review under cut.

_275 comments._

* * *

**Lesson in Kifu, **17th of July

This is another thing people have been asking about on and off, and while we're doing a bigger, more precise lesson at NetGo about this, I thought I might as well take the time to point out some stuff about kifu making.

It's not actually that hard, if you can do it. All you need is a kifu form – hell, any paper with a grid will do in a pinch, so as long as there is 19x19 grid in it. Then two different colour pens, most use black and red. Then you write the hands played onto the grid by numbers, one pen for one colour of stones and so forth. It's pretty simple. Also, if you've had stones taken and other stones are in their place, just write it below, like if stone 36 is in the place of 15th stone, you write "36 at 15" and if a player passes, that's also considered a move and you write "insert number here pass" and so forth.

The biggest thing people have a problem with is actually remembering the game after it has been played and I can't really help you with that. There are tricks to memorisation I'm sure, but I can do it pretty much without thinking so I have no idea how those works. Just remember while writing that black is always odd numbered, even if there are handicap stones and it's technically not odd numbered anymore. Trust me, it helps a lot when you're around the move 132 and can't quite remember if it was black's or white's turn.

Some players don't mind it if you write kifu while playing. Hell, it's done with pro-games, even if not by the players themselves, so why not? It might even prevent you from going Go-blind in points, too, (which is when you keep staring at one point so hard that you miss the rest of the board, most of which might have all your stones in atari). On NetGo and even WorldIgoNet you don't really have to bother, since the sites record the kifu's automatically and hold them for a while, so that's that.

Sai suggests on training with NetGo games – play a game, try and make a manual kifu outta it, and then check the digital kifu to see if you got it right, and so forth.

I'm sure I'm going to get a whole flood of comments about tricks you can do to remember kifu and probably whole lot about Go-blindness, so maybe I'll do a more thorough post later.

Also, have some random kifu.

_324 comments._

* * *

**Yeah we figured you'd say that.** 18th of July

But since you're all secretly assholes and bastards, I am neither going to deny or confirm the origins of those kifu. I'll just say that this? Sai's version of trolling. I'm still on the fence about whether he makes a bad troll or not.

You can attach all the meanings and mysteries to them you want. We ain't saying a thing.

Couple NetGo reviews and 27kyu player review under cut.

_214 comments._

* * *

**Ohohohohoo**. 22nd of July

Seems like someone's informed the insei that we've been reviewing some of their NetGo games. I didn't even know those guys were insei, but now I do. So, _zelda_, _laryn_, _oggler10th_ and _furumi_ are all insei, it turns out – and most of them do bitchy very well. No wonder they were good games.

Aww, poow widdle little insei, did we huwt youw feelings? Boo freaking hoo.

And Sai is telling me to behave. Wtf. Have I actually ever behaved when he's told me to? Well… maybe around the begging, but yeah. That's long long past now, and I am wild and loose and freaking amazing, and I don't take shit from nobody.

…Ouch.

Anyway, I am going to the beach now, suckers. Have fun being indoors and sweltering. Also, NetGo? You are the MAN. I am so loving this secret project, you have seriously no idea.

26kyu and 28kyu player reviews under cut.

_325 comments._

* * *

Merry x-mas! Once/when/if ever I do finish the next chapter, it'll be longer and a bit more action packed, if that makes any sense with a blog story.


End file.
